2012 Master Plan: The Patio Quadrant
It's here! We finished the garden plans last weekend, but I'm just now getting around to writing about it. It was a long and sometimes frustrating process to take crop rotation and seasonal sowing into account, but I think we finally have everything under control. These are big grids, made by taping four pieces of graph paper together. One square is 6 inches. Here is the patio quadrant:
This section is, when looking out the kitchen door, to the left and nearest the house. As discussed before, the far left bed of this quadrant contains the strawberries (although as only 1/4 of that area will be planted out this spring, there is also plenty of space for an extra-early, experimental cold frame of salad greens that we'll plant this coming weekend if the weather is good. It has been far too mild a winter to pass up a chance at some early veggies!). Across the bottom are the other perennials, including (from the center outward) lavender, rhubarb, and roses.
Along the right side toward the front is the snacking bed, which will have a short run of trellised snow peas, three cherry tomatoes, and plenty of basil and cilantro. On the far side of the right side (beyond the entry path) will be two plantings of green beans (Blue Lake, bush variety). These plantings are the earliest (May 12 and 26), and after they are harvested a planting of kale will take their place in July.
Along the back line are, from back to front, a long row one-foot deep of vining tomatoes (Rose, an heirloom similar to Brandywine, and Moskvich, a very early and cold-tolerant heirloom). We grow these vines winding up strings that hang from a frame, as described in Square Foot Gardening. We've had luck with that method in the past, and we are anxious to try these new-to-us varieties.
In another long row in front of the tomatoes (which makes this the middle row of the bed going lengthwise) are spring peas on a trellis. These will go in 6-7 weeks before the tomatoes behind them, and will be pulled out by the time the tomatoes need much space.
In a long, but very narrow, 6-inch row in front of the peas will be parsnips. Parsnips take forever to grow, so they will sit here until frost in the fall, and probably a good while after that as well. By the time they need a bit more space to leaf out their tops and get some sun, the pea trellis will be gone.
Finally, in a long row in front of this bed (along the patio), will be 8 eggplant, 8 bell peppers, and 8 hot peppers (probably jalapeños, because we pickle slices and use them all the time). Since we don't need many of any one of these, we will probably just buy a bunch of 6-packs of seedlings at the nursery.
That last bed is very intensively planted — probably more so than anything we've tried before. In theory the peas should help with fertility for everything else, and should be out of the way to make a little more room for light and air to the parsnips as the summer heats up. We shall see of this works out or not, and take good notes for future master plans.
This section is, when looking out the kitchen door, to the left and nearest the house. As discussed before, the far left bed of this quadrant contains the strawberries (although as only 1/4 of that area will be planted out this spring, there is also plenty of space for an extra-early, experimental cold frame of salad greens that we'll plant this coming weekend if the weather is good. It has been far too mild a winter to pass up a chance at some early veggies!). Across the bottom are the other perennials, including (from the center outward) lavender, rhubarb, and roses.
Along the right side toward the front is the snacking bed, which will have a short run of trellised snow peas, three cherry tomatoes, and plenty of basil and cilantro. On the far side of the right side (beyond the entry path) will be two plantings of green beans (Blue Lake, bush variety). These plantings are the earliest (May 12 and 26), and after they are harvested a planting of kale will take their place in July.
Along the back line are, from back to front, a long row one-foot deep of vining tomatoes (Rose, an heirloom similar to Brandywine, and Moskvich, a very early and cold-tolerant heirloom). We grow these vines winding up strings that hang from a frame, as described in Square Foot Gardening. We've had luck with that method in the past, and we are anxious to try these new-to-us varieties.
In another long row in front of the tomatoes (which makes this the middle row of the bed going lengthwise) are spring peas on a trellis. These will go in 6-7 weeks before the tomatoes behind them, and will be pulled out by the time the tomatoes need much space.
In a long, but very narrow, 6-inch row in front of the peas will be parsnips. Parsnips take forever to grow, so they will sit here until frost in the fall, and probably a good while after that as well. By the time they need a bit more space to leaf out their tops and get some sun, the pea trellis will be gone.
Finally, in a long row in front of this bed (along the patio), will be 8 eggplant, 8 bell peppers, and 8 hot peppers (probably jalapeños, because we pickle slices and use them all the time). Since we don't need many of any one of these, we will probably just buy a bunch of 6-packs of seedlings at the nursery.
That last bed is very intensively planted — probably more so than anything we've tried before. In theory the peas should help with fertility for everything else, and should be out of the way to make a little more room for light and air to the parsnips as the summer heats up. We shall see of this works out or not, and take good notes for future master plans.
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